Re: Short rant about git usability - make 'git clone' work on an empty remote repository

> This is a rant, those offended by rants should stop reading now.
>
> When I want to check out a remote repository, I do:
>
>  git clone URL...
>
> Except when the repository is empty, when for no explicable reason
> this familiar command doesn't work.
>
>  $ git clone git+ssh://rwmj@git.ocamlcore.org/gitroot/ocaml-autoconf/ocaml-autoconf.git
>  Initialized empty Git repository in /home/rjones/d/ocaml-autoconf/.git/
>  fatal: no matching remote head
>
>  $ git init ocaml-autoconf
>  usage: git init [-q | --quiet] [--bare] [--template=<template-directory>] [--shared[=<permissions>]]
>  $ mkdir ocaml-autoconf
>  $ cd ocaml-autoconf
>  $ git init
>  Initialized empty Git repository in /home/rjones/d/ocaml-autoconf/.git/
>  $ ls
>  $ ls -a
>  .  ..  .git
>
> Following advice on a website ...
>
>  $ git-remote origin git+ssh://rwmj@git.ocamlcore.org/gitroot/ocaml-autoconf/ocaml-autoconf.git
>  error: Unknown subcommand: origin
>  usage: git remote
>     or: git remote add <name> <url>
>     or: git remote rm <name>
>     or: git remote show <name>
>     or: git remote prune <name>
>     or: git remote update [group]
>
>      -v, --verbose         be verbose
>
>  $ git remote add origin git+ssh://rwmj@git.ocamlcore.org/gitroot/ocaml-autoconf/ocaml-autoconf.git
>
>  $ git status
>  # On branch master
>  #
>  # Initial commit
>  #
>  nothing to commit (create/copy files and use "git add" to track)
>  $ git branch
>  $ git checkout
>  fatal: You are on a branch yet to be born
>  $ git status
>  # On branch master
>  #
>  # Initial commit
>  #
>  nothing to commit (create/copy files and use "git add" to track)
>  $ echo test > README
>  $ git commit -a
>  # On branch master
>  #
>  # Initial commit
>  #
>  # Untracked files:
>  #   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
>  #
>  #     README
>  nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)
>  $ git add README
>  $ git commit -a
>  Created initial commit 2c9a63a: Create repository.
>   1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
>   create mode 100644 README
>
>  $ git push
>  No refs in common and none specified; doing nothing.
>  Perhaps you should specify a branch such as 'master'.
>  fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly
>  error: failed to push some refs to 'git+ssh://rwmj@git.ocamlcore.org/gitroot/ocaml-autoconf/ocaml-autoconf.git'
>  $ git push master
>  fatal: 'master': unable to chdir or not a git archive
>  fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly
>  $ git branch master
>  fatal: A branch named 'master' already exists.